The Challenge
by TheNocturne
Summary: All she needed was the proper motivation. One-shot, Kuki/Wally


**Haha, a piece I did when I bored. It's not significant or anything. Just for fun. XD**

**I'm going over to my Aunt's house this weekend! Yay!**

**I'll talk to you guys later, we're going to watch the football game.**

**Have a great week! ♥**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own.**

**Love, Sadie**

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Blip blip, blip blip blip. Blip.

The noise was irritating to the extreme, most notably because it was constant and enduring. Kuki would have given anything to have a set of large earplugs, or to escape the room, but there simply was not an opportunity, due to the fact that her dinner was almost finished and that it required constant watching, or else there would be a very sticky, very smelly mess over the smooth surface of their stovetop.

She had often thought that maybe growing up and maturing would have caused the boy in the other room to forget his silly videogames, and to move on to more adult interests. She had felt hope when he began to take a liking in cars and wrestling, but had realized soon afterward that it was hopeless – he went right back to his games when they got home, determined to beat the generic-boss-at-every-level so that he could achieve the generic-ending-that-occurs-in-all-the-games-anyway.

He was polite enough to spend time with her, still, but it was still irritating to have him in that room instead of sitting in the kitchen with her, talking about his day or making plans for the next day or to tell her of Hoagie's latest mechanical invention. Their relationship luckily never lacked anything because of it, but the _noise_, it was grating on her nerves.

Dinner, she decided, could wait.

Turning off the heat, she went into the living room and sat down next to him. His tongue was stuck between his teeth, and his eyebrows were furrowed tightly, the look of concentration having taken over his face entirely. He barely noticed when she sat down beside him, muttering a quick, "Hey," before letting out an indignant noise when the screen darkened at the death of his character.

"Are you almost done?" He must have noticed the testy edge to her normally sweet voice, for he glanced over at her with a quick flash of confusion and hesitated before moving his revived character forward on the two-dimensional playing field. Sensing that he might be walking tip-toe on a minefield, his response was slower than normal.

"Eh. . . I was gonna try to beat this level. . . why?" Kuki considered leaving it alone. After all, Wally was Wally, and she would never be able to change him, no matter how hard she tried.

And then another idea struck her, and Kuki decided that it would be much more interesting than her original plan.

Smiling sweetly, she asked innocently, "May I try?"

The effect was instantaneous – he burst out laughing. While trying not to feel offended, Kuki watched him shake his head, as though she had been joking around and was not seriously asking if she could play the game. His question was even more offensive, for he choked out, "You?"

Scowling, Kuki knew that there was only one way that he would seriously let her try. "I bet I can beat you."

Wally, competitive beyond all extreme, immediately smirked. "You couldn't beat me if you tried. I'll take that bet." Now she had him; confident, arrogant, cocky – the perfect victim of some psychological victory that she would soon be able to take advantage of.

"Try me." Shrugging, Wally saved and shut of the game, before inserting a disk that was multiplayer instead. He handed the controller to Kuki and then settled back on the couch, grinning smugly while she stared at the multiple buttons on the device and tried to remember which ones she actually needed.

"What're the stakes?" he asked, turning on the game and watching it load. His emerald eyes were glinting competitively already, and Kuki knew that she had just unleashed a monster. A monster that would continue to rage until she had successfully flattened it beneath the triumph of her victory.

If she knew how to play.

"If I win, you have to stay off video games for a week." The look on his face was enough to make her want to win. How would he survive for a week without his precious games? "And if you win. . . I'll put away one rainbow monkey for a week, for every time that you win."

Another smirk – _man, she loved those smirks of_ _his_ – and he turned his face toward the screen. "You're on. Best be ready to put them all away."

And thirty seconds later, she was defeated.

"Again."

It was a simple game, one that required choosing a character and then fighting each other in an attempt to get rid of the set number of lives given to both players. She was inclined to always choose the same character, while Wally was skilled at all of them. His favorite, however, was one that wielded a bow and arrow and could easily take out her player within a matter of seconds.

This time, she was able to last a couple of minutes, simply by running away from him and avoiding his constant rain of attacks on her player. When he had taken the last of her lives, he smirked at her. "That's two."

"Again."

After four more unsuccessful attempts, Wally grinned at her and shrugged. "Have you had enough defeat?"

Obviously, she needed a new tactic. Pursing her lips, Kuki thought for a minute, and then grinned. "New stakes. If I win, you stay off video games for a week, _and_ you give me a kiss." When he opened his mouth to object at the change of stakes, she talked over him smoothly. "If you win, I put a rainbow monkey away for a week, and . . . I'll go to a wrestling match with you tomorrow."

He had been trying to get her to go with him for weeks. "Deal."

Tongue in cheek, fingers pressing madly, the game began. He was the same character once more, and so was she, but this time, she was determined to show him up. When the game began, he immediately began to fire arrows at her, which she hid from. And then she was shooting things at him, throwing things, and doing all that she could to rid him of his lives.

He was taking away hers at an extremely fast pace, but she was putting up a fair fight, too. When she realized that he was going to have to kiss her upon victory, she then stuck her tongue between her teeth and began to mash buttons, until she had successfully blown his character away and his last life disappeared. The screen then flashed with the word "Victory" at her, and Kuki couldn't help but laugh aloud. The rainbow monkeys that would spend a week in her closet were totally worth it.

Wally was staring, dumbfounded, at the screen, his lips parted slightly as her character paraded across the screen. He could only choke out one word. "How?"

"Proper motivation," Kuki responded innocently, and then, with a triumph look at him, she leaned over to claim her prize.


End file.
